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Encanto Farms Nursery > Topics > From Figs to Twigs in 7 days: Newbie end of season report
 
 


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jkuo

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
20F degree temperatures have hit, so all of my figs have dropped their leaves and made the migration into the garage.  It seems like such a short time ago, I was still enjoying those lush tropical looking leaves.  I thought I'd recount my first year experience with fig growing and muse about plans for next year.

I initially started my fig journey thinking I would grow like 1 or 2 trees.  That so did not end up being the case.  The more I researched, the more varieties intrigued me.  Fortunately (or unfortunately as the case may be), I have limited yard space to plant in ground and even more limited indoor storage space to overwinter pots.  Restricting my search to plants that could grow in ground in my climate immediately culled the list and made the curse of too many options into the fun project with still lots of options.

Here's what I ended up with in my first year:

  • 2(?) types unknown local figs - I salvaged these from home owners who were digging up their trees.  They had talked to the previous owner about the figs, but had sparse details.  They said there were two types of figs, but 7 plants got dug up.  Hopefully I'll find out next season if the figs are worthwhile from either the transplanted rootballs (2 in ground, 1 in a grow bag) or the 10 cuttings I rooted over the summer and have under grow lights for the winter.
  • Italian Honey - More prolific than expected.  I must have bought a 2nd year plant.  I harvested 5 figs (1 breba, 4 main) and knocked off another 4 since it was clear those were never going to ripen in time.  The fruit was sweet and juicy, but nothing to write home about.  A solid "meh" in my book, though my wife gave them a thumbs up.  I'll give it another year to prove its worth.
  • Hardy Chicago - Got 6 fruits.  The ones that I picked fully ripe were really good.  Two thumbs up from both me and the wife.  It was also my most vigorous grower.  I didn't measure, but I think I started out with a plant about 12" tall, and it grew to 40+.  This one is definitely going in ground next season.
  • Celeste - Set 3 early embryos.  They all dropped.  Set 5 more embryos later.  4 of those dropped.  @#%@#$ dropping!  1/8 fruit ripened, but that one was really tasty.  I'm tempted to put this one in ground, since the rumor is that the fruit dropping slows down with maturity.
  • VdB - TC plant.  Multiple stems grew about 12".  I impulse purchased this one before I imposed the "hardy in ground" rule.  Will see how it does next season.
  • Ischia - TC plant.  Grew about 12".  Bought this one before I found out that "Ischia" and "Green Ischia" aren't the same.  Oh well.  I'll grow it out and see what it's like.
  • Olympian - TC plant.  Grew about 12".  It was a cheap impulse purchase. We'll see how it does next season.
I would consider my first year experiment a success.  I ended up far deeper into fig growing as a hobby than I expected, but as hobbies go, at least it's relatively healthy (and tasty).
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Johnny - Lancaster, PA, Zone 6b
Plants I'm growing: Google Doc
Woknblues

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
"From Figs to Twigs in 7 days" lol, funny title. 

I might have a similar thread open next year around this time. 
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Zone 7b Albuquerque
Yeehova

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
When did you buy your TC figs? I boughta TC Olympian and VDB from wellspring and the Olympian grew to about 4 feet and the VDB to about 3 feet. The Olympian even gave me figs!
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Brian
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rcantor

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
Nice report!  Search for posts by Bass - he lives and sells fig trees near Bethlehem so the ones that do well for him should do well for you.
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Zone 6, MO

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Galicia Negra, De La Reina - Pons, Genovese Nero - Rafed's, Sbayi, Souadi, Acciano, Any Rimada, Sodus Sicilian, any Bass, Pons or Axier fig, any great tasting fig.
jkuo

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
Brian,

I got my TC VdB in May and my TC Olympian in early July.  Now that I look more closely, it looks like my VdB has grown closer to 2 feet, but my other TC plants grew just about 12 inches.  I probably left my TC plants in the shade a bit too long before moving them out to a sunny spot, so that might be why mine were less vigorous than yours.  3 and 4 feet is pretty impressive growth!

Bob,

It was actually an article that mentioned Bass that got me into figs.  I didn't know it was even possible to grow figs in PA until I happened upon an article about growing figs in Philly.  Even though I've never met him, I blame Bass (via the treesofjoy website) for getting me interested in figs.
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Johnny - Lancaster, PA, Zone 6b
Plants I'm growing: Google Doc
schaplin

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
Sounds like you had a good year with your figs.  I blame Bill for mine since I kept driving by his house wondering why he had Bill's Figs by his driveway.  Of course I had to pull in and it was all downhill from there.
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Yeehova

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
I should have added that I constantly pinched and pruned to maintain a single trunk which could account for the height since I didn't have multiple trunks competing for root nutrients.
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Brian
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